Sub: Inquiry into the Maikanch Police Firing / making public the Report
of Justice P.K.Mishra Commission

Sir,

We would like to bring the following issues to your notice and demand
for necessary action.

First, as you are aware, three people had been killed in police firing
in Maikanch village of Kashipur Block, Rayagada district. The incident
took place on 16th December 2000. In January 2001, the Government of Orissa
had instituted a commission of inquiry, headed by Justice P.K.Misra, then
a sitting Judge of Orissa High Court, to look into different aspects of
the incident.

The Commission, on completion of the inquiry, submitted its report to
the Government on 17th January, 2003. The findings of the Commission were
placed before the Cabinet in September 2003 for discussion. It is then
that the public came to know about the findings of the Commission from
the press reports. However, the full report of the Commission as submitted
to the Government, has not yet been made public.

We fail to understand why the report has not yet been made public. Prima
facie, reading of whatever has come out in the media, gives rise to a
lot of suspicion in the public mind, both about the findings of the Commission
and the Government's motive in not making the report public.

Going by the press reports, even though the Commission has fixed the
guilt and responsibilities in clear terms, as follows, for reasons best
known to it, (reasons not yet made public) it has not recommended any
action against the officials for their acts of commission and omission:

that it was not necessary for the police to go inside the village,

that excessive force had been used by the police;

that the officer (the then OIC Kashipur P. S) leading the police force
into the village used excessive force by continuing firing as many as
19 rounds which far exceeded the requirement.

Neither his superiors in the police nor the Executive Magistrate who
ordered the firing and were present on the spot, restrained or gave proper
direction to the erring police officer, thereby derelicting their duty.

On the other hand, the Commission has shown undue interest in giving
recommendations on certain aspects like environment versus 'development',
which, being far removed from its pronounced terms of reference, gives
an impression of prejudice as far as it's findings and recommendations
are concerned.

We believe and hope you will agree with us that the general public has
a right to know, for obvious reasons, the full report of the Inquiry Commission.
We think that by not making the entire report public, the public in general
and the affected people of Kashipur in particular, have been denied of
their right to information on a matter, which has serious consequences.
.

In view of the above we do hope that the Government will take necessary
measures to respect people’s right to information by immediately
making the Inquiry Commission’s report public alongwith the Action
Taken Report.